Chapter Text
Billy rolled off of Steve, left him panting and tired, laying in his own cum and sweat.
Billy patted him once on the thigh, getting up to get dressed, to leave.
That’s how it always went. Billy fucked him good and hard, and then left before Steve could even say goodbye.
At it was fine.
It was.
They weren’t together, weren’t even friends, really.
Steve was just being a baby, just being needy and clingy, everything Nancy always said was so bothersome, Steve.
He watched Billy get dressed, biting his tongue every time he wanted to ask Billy to stay, to spend the night and hold him.
But Billy was already stomping down the stairs.
So Steve rolled over and tried to imagine strong arms around his waist.
-
He could feel the illness coming for days before it actually hit.
His throat was sore every morning, and his cough was dry, made him hack for days.
He was curled up in bed, had a heating pad on his aching stomach, the trash can close to his bed just in case.
He absolutely fucking longed to have someone there, to have Billy there, bringing him hot soup and pressing a cool wash cloth to his head.
He was running a mild fever when the kids showed up, begged him to bring them to the pool.
He rolled his carcass out of bed, shoving himself into the first swim trunks he could find, the only shirt he saw.
Dustin raised one eyebrow at him when he tromped downstairs, but he didn’t care, just drove the little shits to the pool.
It was fucking hot today, and Steve felt fucking delirious sitting in the heat.
He was in the bathroom, his head pressed against one of the lockers, the cool metal.
“You’re on my locker, dipshit.” He stood up slowly, blinking at Billy.
“Sorry, Bill.” Billy furrowed his brows.
“You look like shit.” Steve smiled wearily at him.
“You gonna take care a’ me?”
“Fuck no, Harrington. Fuckin’, get outta here.” He shoved Steve aside, made him stumble a little.
Steve pouted, still leaned against the lockers.
Billy just shook his head, started changing into his lifeguard uniform. Steve jsut watched him.
Billy looked up at him slowly.
“Harrington, get out. Fuckin’ perv.” Billy shoved him again, made him slam into the lockers. His head spun.
He stumbled out of the locker room, the sun beaming into his eyes, making him dizzy.
He closed his eye, squatting down where he stood, pressing the heels of each hand into his eye sockets.
He took some deep breaths, trying to get the world to stop spinning. When he thought it was safe, he stood back up.
His vision went dark.
Billy was just stepping out of the locker room, unlit cigarette in his mouth when he saw Harrington stand up.
It was almost comical, the way his body just went down, like someone had cut the strings off a marionette.
But then Steve wasn’t surfacing, had sunk right to the bottom.
Billy scrambled to blow his whistle, throwing caution to the wind and sprinting forward, diving into the water.
He grabbed Steve around the middle, swimming up with him.
Billy’s blood was rushing in his ears.
Freddy was there, helped Billy pull Steve out of the pool.
Steve was just laying there.
And then Billy noticed the blood.
A gash on the side of Steve’s head was bleeding, the blood mixing with water, made it look like there was so much.
He tugged off his wet shirt, pressing it to the wound, staunching the blood as best as he could.
And then Billy checked over him.
And Steve wasn’t breathing.
Billy yelled for someone to call an ambulance, vague heard Heather yell back through the blood rushing in his ears.
He tilted Steve’s head back.
Okay, okay. You can do this. Chest compressions. Just like in training.
He tried to be methodical, tried not to think about how it was Steve under his hands.
He breathed into his mouth.
Steve’s lips were chapped, already fucking cold.
He started compressions again.
A crowd had gathered now, Steve’s kids all front row, all of them had a hand on the curly one, he was crying, his hands shaking.
Billy kept pushing on his chest, counting each compression.
One of Steve’s ribs gave way with a crack. The crowd around them gasped.
Billy gave him another few breaths.
He couldn’t think about their last interaction, how he had pushed Steve away. Couldn’t think about the last time he was at Steve’s house, the way Steve had looked at him, so soft and pretty and asked you wanna stay? We can go again. And Billy had laughed at him, called him a pussy.
He gave him more breaths.
And Steve coughed, spluttering.
Billy rolled him onto his side.
He was coughing, water coming out of his mouth.
Billy patted him on the back as everyone fucking clapped. Billy ground his jaw.
Steve was taking shaky breaths now.
The paramedics had arrived, pushing through the pool gates.
They got Steve onto a gurney.
“I, uh, I think I broke a rib during compressions.” Billy was following behind them, Steve’s kids following him like little ducklings.
“That’s okay. Better a broken rib and a breathing person.”
“He just passed out. I think he’s sick.” The loaded Steve up in the ambulance.
His eyes were wide, he looked panicked, staring at Billy, chewing on his bottom lip.
“Can I come with him?” One of the paramedics just nodded, Billy leapt into the ambulance, held Steve’s hand on the way to the hospital.
“You don’t have to stay.” They were in the E.R., waiting for a doctor to come back with the scans of Steve’s chest. They had already stitched up his head.
“Got nothin’ else to do.”
“You just, you don’t gotta take care a’ me.”
Billy dropped his head into his hands.
“Shoudn’ta said all that.”
“It’s fine, Billy. We’re not friends. You don’t owe me shit.”
“Honestly, I think I owe you an apology.” Steve shrugged. “Been treatin’ you like shit for a while now.”
“Look, I had no illusions about what we are to each other.” Billy sat back in his chair, glaring at Steve.
“That’s a lie.”
“No, it’s not. I knew we were nothing more than two people who fuck sometimes.”
“Maybe, but you wanted more.” And Steve’s cheeks went bright fucking red. “I could fucking see it. Just, the way you fuckin’ look at me, man. It was terrifying.” Steve ground his jaw.
“Terrifying?”
“You’re in love with me. Don’t know when, or why, frankly, but you are. And those fuckin’ big eyes a’ yours pretty much show every emotion you feel. So we’re fucking, and I pull outta you, and you give me this look, like you’ve never been happier, like you’re so in love, and Stevie I can’t take that shit.”
Steve’s mouth was hanging open.
“I guess I’ll stop then?” He spoke slowly.
“No, I- shit, I’m not sayin’ any of this right.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I was so scared because I’m not allowed to love you back.”
“But you do?” Steve was still talking all slow. Billy looked at his shoes, crossing his arms over his chest. “Oh my God, you big baby. You’re allowed to have feelings and emotions.”
“Not in my house.” Steve just stared at him. Billy sighed. “My dad would, would fuckin’ kill me if he found out. And I’m not just being dramatic. He doesn’t take nice to queers.”
“Who says he has to know?” Billy huffed a laugh.
“He always knows. Has ways of findin’ out all sorts a’ shit.”
“We’ve made it this far without him knowing.”
“Yeah, ‘cause he thought I was out fuckin’ every girl in town. He’d rather have a slut for a son than a homo.”
“Tell him you’ve got a girlfriend, then.”
“He’ll wanna meet her.”
“Then get some girl to cover for you. Get Heather or Robin or someone.” Billy chewed on his bottom lip.
“You think one of them would do it?”
“Oh yeah. I mean, Robin hates you on principle, which, sorry about that, but she’d probably do it if you change your ways or something.”
“Yeah? What’s that entail.”
“Don’t give me shit to complain about. She’s my go to when I would be all mopey about you, so if I start bein’ all excited about you, she’d notice.”
“What if she just hates me?”
“Nah. You two would get along great. Her favorite pass time is making fun of me.”
“Okay, but that’s the main pass time of everyone that’s ever met you.
“Hey. Aren’t you supposed to be nice to me now? Now that we’re all in love.” He grinned as Billy flushed.
“Never gonna be nice to you if you rub that shit in my face.”
“Oh please. You broke my fucking rib trying to save my life. Don’t act like you don’t love me.”
“You never thanked me for that shit.”
“Figured I would thank you when I got out of the hospital.” He smiled all coy, biting his bottom lip just a little.
“What you got in mind?”
“Remember like, three weeks ago, when you asked for that thing, and I said over my dead body? Well since I was almost a dead body, figured you could have this one.” Billy’s eyes went wide.
“You’re really gonna let me? Fuck you in you dad’s office?” Billy had stumbled into the room accidentally, kept saying please, Harrington? Just lemme take you on this fuckin’ desk.
“Oh, yeah.”
“That what I get for bein’ your boyfriend, or whatever?” Steve looked down at the thin blanket covering his legs.
“Depends. Are you my boyfriend?
“You want me to be?” Steve nodded, still looking at his lap. “Then, sure. I am.”
And when Steve smiled at him, it was bright as the fucking sun.